Creativity Prompts for Writers, Journalers, Artists and Speakers

Welcome to the Carnival of Creativity for June 30, 2013. All links will open in a new tab or window, so feel free to click through and leave some love in the comments. Once you close that window, you’ll be right back here for more linky goodness.

…there are three levels of hindsight bias that stack on top of each other, from basic memory processes up to higher-level inference and belief. The first level of hindsight bias, memory distortion, involves misremembering an earlier opinion or judgment (“I said it would happen”). The second level, inevitability, centers on our belief that the event was inevitable (“It had to happen”). And the third level, foreseeability, involves the belief that we personally could have foreseen the event (“I knew it would happen”).

The researchers argue that certain factors fuel our tendency toward hindsight bias. Research shows that we selectively recall information that confirms what we know to be true and we try to create a narrative that makes sense out of the information we have. When this narrative is easy to generate, we interpret that to mean that the outcome must have been foreseeable. Furthermore, research suggests that we have a need for closure that motivates us to see the world as orderly and predictable and to do whatever we can to promote a positive view of ourselves. –Science Daily

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist displays hindsight bias. How does this affect the next thing he or she decides to do?

Journaling Prompt: How do you see yourself operating with hindsight bias?

Art Prompt: Hindsight Bias

Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Inform your audience about hindsight bias and how it may be affecting their perspective.

On 7 January 1948, Godman Field at Fort Knox, Kentucky received a report from the Kentucky Highway Patrol of an unusual aerial object near Maysville, Kentucky. ..

Four P-51 Mustangs of C Flight, 165th Fighter Squadron Kentucky Air National Guard already in the air—one piloted by Mantell—were told to approach the object. Blackwell was in radio communication with the pilots throughout the event.

…some sources reported that Mantell had described an object “[which] looks metallic and of tremendous size,” but, according to Ruppelt in The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, others disputed whether or not Mantell actually said this.

The other two pilots accompanied Mantell in steep pursuit of the object. They later reported they saw an object, but described it as so small and indistinct they could not identify it. Mantell ignored suggestions that the pilots should level their altitude and try to more clearly see the object.-Wikipedia

Fiction Writing Prompt: Write a scene or story where your protagonist sees a UFO but isn’t believed.

Journaling Prompt: What do you believe about UFOs?

Art Prompt: UFO

Non-Fiction / Speechwriting Prompt: Tell your audience the story of a UFO incident and share what you believe about UFOs.